When Brad Stevens took over as the head coach of the Boston Celtics this offseason, nearly everyone praised the move, saying the former Butler coach had picked the perfect situation to transition to the pro game. With Rajon Rondo out, and team legends Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett gone to the Brooklyn Nets, no one was expecting the team to win more than 15 games.

Stevens could come in and learn the intricacies of the pro game. The Celtics could bottom out, then get a top pick in a loaded 2014 NBA draft. It was perfect for everyone. Boston fans accepted this season would be more or less a wash, and buckled down to watch Stevens (and his green ties) take a year to win over the players, get acclimated, and learn how to coach in the NBA.

The Celtics, led by Stevens, currently sit atop the (admittedly hapless) Atlantic Division. They've already won 10 games, more than some analysts predicted they'd win all season.

And for the Celtics, this may be a total catastrophe. Here's why:

This team wasn't supposed to win

Rondo's gone for at least half the season. Pierce and Garnett are on the roster of a division rival. The Celtics are starting Vitor Faverani at center some games, or as many Boston fans call him: "Who?"

This is not a team you put on the floor to make a run at a championship. This is a team you put out there to fight hard and get a nice chance at a lottery pick in next year's draft. Speaking of which…

Get to know those names. All of them are entering the 2014 draft, and all of them have the potential to change a franchise. The Celtics were supposed to have a chance at one of these future stars. Then they started winning and screwed everything up.

The more Brooklyn and the Knicks lose, the more the Celtics think they can take the Atlantic Division

The Atlantic Division this year was supposed to be a heavyweight bout between the Knicks and the Nets. The Knicks were coming off a 54-win season and looked to be a strong competitor for the Eastern Conference crown. The Nets had retooled their entire roster, spending big to bring in Pierce, Garnett, Andrei Kirilenko, Jason Terry and others.

Then the season started. The Nets and the Knicks both stunk. They keep getting blown out, and the more they lose, the more it instills belief in this Celtics team that they can take the division and somehow claim the 4-seed in the East. This is a team that wasn't supposed to win 15 games!

The team's ceiling isn't high enough

So the Celtics are winning, but for what? Say they hang on and win this ridiculous division, and snag a four seed. Say they even win a playoff series. Then what? They get killed by the Heat or Pacers in the second round and go home with their heads held high?

The golden rule in the NBA is this: You either want to be at the top or the bottom. You either want to be competing for championships or bottoming out to free up cap space and land a superstar in the draft. The middle is where teams go to die. An 8-seed every year and a first/second round exit from the playoffs is the equivalent of NBA purgatory. It's not where the Celtics want to be.

Again, this team wasn't supposed to win

This Celtics roster is not built to win championships. But under Brad Stevens' leadership, they're playing like a team that thinks they are. He's transformed Jordan Crawford into a triple-double machine, just a year after Crawford was run out of Washington by a team and fanbase that chalked him up as a selfish, erratic gunner. Stevens has Jeff Green playing the most efficient basketball of his life, and has Jared Sullinger draining threes.

The team rebounds, they run fast breaks well, they defend the pick-and-roll. Stevens has three or four inbound plays that get the Celtics a few extra buckets a game — often the difference needed in a win.

Oh yeah, and they still have Rajon Rondo coming back this season, too.

Rooting for the Celtics this year must be one of the weirdest fan experiences ever. The team is a group of lovable losers, except they can't even get the losing part right.

And as the sight of Jabari Parker or Andrew Wiggins in a Celtics jersey slowly dissipates, the Celtics have to come to grips with the fact that they picked the wrong coach to throw away a season.